In today’s tech-heavy world, business security has changed drastically. Now, businesses must protect their information from hackers and other malicious entities all over the world. If you have a business with any significant amount of data, especially sensitive customer information, you have a huge responsibility to keep that data safe. Here are four ways you could be putting your company’s computer security at risk without even realizing it.
Using Only a Simple WordPress Website
The vast majority of small businesses can’t hire professional web designers, and so they turn to WordPress, the most popular content management system in the entire world. To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with WordPress from a cyber-security perspective, but many of the plugins that are developed for it are not as secure as the platform itself. If you are using only a basic WordPress site for your business, be sure to use strong, secure passwords and take basic steps to keep that site secure. Ideally, you should be planning to move up to a site design with enhanced security features in the future, but some common-sense steps in the beginning will keep you more or less safe from most basic hacking attempts.
Relying Too Much on Cloud Storage
Cloud storage may be the great new trend in data management, but some cloud storage services can be very insecure. For some applications, cloud storage is safe enough. If you need a cloud platform to collaborate on marketing content creation, for example, you’ll probably be alright, as that content isn’t especially sensitive material. If, on the other hand, you’re looking for storage solution for customer files that may contain private information, you may want to rethink the use of the cloud as your main form of data storage. Using server storage in a dedicated data center is a great cyber security solution as it is far more secure, which is why most large business choose this option for their storage needs.
Failing to Use Encryption
As serious as hacking threats are these days, you want to protect the data on your website in every possible way. One of the best ways to protect your site is to use some form of encryption, which will keep communications sent on your site protected against hackers. Most sites find that 128-bit encryption is sufficient, but for businesses with more substantial security concerns, higher encryption levels are available.
Using Weak Passwords
By far the most common cyber-security mistake for both individuals and businesses is using weak passwords. Complex passwords with multiple types of elements may be harder to remember, but they are also much more resistant to being hacked. Hackers will often rely on a process known as brute force hacking, which is essentially the use of a random word and number generator to crack a password through trial and error.
Another component of guarding your business against brute force hacks is to make your usernames harder to guess. Far too many businesses use their web domain as their username in a content management system like WordPress. If you do this, hackers will have one part of the username and password login combination already figured out. If you want to protect your website from hackers, employ usernames that are unrelated to your site or business name and passwords that make use of numbers, special characters and case-sensitive letters. Though it won’t protect you from all hacks, it will make it more difficult for lower-level hackers to gain access to your site.
Cyber-security is an unavoidable element of modern business. If you want your business to succeed in the long-term, it’s important to take online security seriously. You should also make some effort to keep up with trends in cyber-security, as the world of technology is changing constantly.